The Book of Esther

Chapter 4

Proverbs
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

Verses 1-4
1. Our passage records mourning in three different places:
• There is mourning in the by Mordecai.
• There is mourning in the by the Jews throughout the country of Persia.
• There is mourning in the by Queen Esther.
2. “When Mordecai perceived all that was done” (verse 1).
• Mordecai understood the anti-Semitism campaign better than anyone else who was mourning.
• Mordecai knew actions provoked Haman to plot this wicked anti-Semitism campaign.
3. “Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes… and cried with a loud and a bitter cry” (verse 1).
• Tearing his clothes, putting on sackcloth (traditional mourning apparel), putting ashes on himself (the ashes
were usually put on the head), and lamenting loudly were traditional actions done in the east in his day to
show their mourning.
• Mordecai was very about the evil of the decree.
4. Mordecai “went out into the midst of the city” (verse 1) and mourned.
• In mourning so publicly, Mordecai was no longer a secret .
• Mordecai's public mourning said he was taking his stand with the .
5. “And came even before the king's gate; for none might enter into the king's gate clothed with sackcloth” (verse
2).
• King Ahasuerus of Persia was a king who had a law about keeping away from the
king.
• In defiance of this law, Mordecai went to the palace of the king and stood at the king's gate to let royalty
know of his great sorrow.
6. “In every province” (verse 3) mourning occurred because of the proclamation against the Jews.
7. “There was great mourning among the Jews” (verse 3).
• The proclamation especially hit hard with the Jews, for they were the target of the murderous decree.
• The notices posted in conspicuous places in the cities and towns would bring sorrow to the heart of the Jews.
8. “There was... fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes” (verse 3).
• The Jews mourned in the same manner as Mordecai, but they also .
• Their fasting indicates they were directing their cries to God for help.
9. “So Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told it her. Then was the queen exceedingly grieved; and she
sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him: but he received it not” (verse 4).
• Esther's mourning occurred when she became aware of Mordecai's mourning.
• Her awareness of Mordecai's mourning came about when her servants informed her about his mourning.
• Esther mistakenly thought that some clothes would make him .

Verses 5-9
1. When Esther learned that Mordecai would not receive the clothes she had sent him, she investigated why.
2. Since Mordecai and Esther were not sitting in an office where Mordecai would counsel Esther in the setting that
professional counsellors have today, they had to to each other.
3. When Esther sent “Hatach, one of the king's chamberlains” (verse 5) to Mordecai to inquire why Mordecai was
mourning.
• He told her all that had happened to him (which would be about his refusal to bow to Haman and having this
refusal reported to Haman), about the bribe given Ahasuerus to destroy the Jews, and he gave her a copy of
the wicked decree which ordered the destruction of all the Jews in Persia.
• All of this would give Esther ample reasons to go see the king.
4. “Charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him
for her people” (verse 8).
• Mordecai gave this assignment to the in the palace where the lived.
• Mordecai told Esther to make request for “ ” (verse 8).
• Hatach now knows that Queen Esther is a .
• Esther could only plead for the Jews to King Ahasuerus by revealing that she was a .
5. “Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai” (verse 9).
• This man's name is mentioned as being the in the palace who relayed Mordecai's
messages to Esther and Esther's messages to Mordecai.
• Hatach was only a , but how was his duty.

Verses 10-12
1. Esther was interested in doing what Mordecai told her to do.
2. Esther was aware of the this mission would put her in.
3. “Whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is
one law of his to put him to death, except such to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may
live” (verse 11).
• No one could come into the presence of the king of Persia except he had been called beforehand by the king.
• To try and see the king without a call by the king was to endanger your life.
• Only if the king put forth his golden scepter to the intruder would the unscheduled visitor escape death.
4. “All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know” (verse 11) about the law in seeing the
king.
• Esther tells Mordecai that all the people about the law.
• She wanted to know he asked her to see the king?
5. “I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days” (verse 11).
• Not being called by the king in thirty days indicated that the king had lost in
Esther.
• Esther no longer had the upon Ahasuerus as she used to have, and she uses
this as an excuse for refusing to see the king on behalf of the Jews as Mordecai had charged her to do.

Verses 13-14
1. “Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house,
more than all the Jews” (verse 13).
• Mordecai's response to Esther's refusal was to give her a challenge about serving in time of need.
• Mordecai countered Esther's “ ” by telling her
that she was facing a greater danger – a death sentence upon all the Jews!
2. “If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews
from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed” (verse 14).
• Mordecai told Esther that she had the and opportunity to participate
in the deliverance of the Jewish people.
• “Then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place” – God can do it
without you.
• “But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed” – failure to act will bring the chastening hand of God.
3. “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (verse 14).
• Esther is reminded that her being in the palace at this time was .
• put her there so she might be of service for her people at this critical time.

Verses 15-17
1. Mordecai got through to Esther.
2. “Fast ye for me... I also and my maidens will fast likewise” (verse 16).
• Esther requested that Mordecai and the other Jews for her while she and her maidens also
fasted.
• Esther saw the need of help to accomplish her task.
3. “So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him” (verse 17).
4. “If I perish, I perish” (verse 16).
• What a great statement about !
• Esther will do her duty even if she must pay the ultimate price - her life!
• Esther accomplished a great work for God in delivering the Jews from destruction because she came to the
point where she totally herself to her duty.